Pen nib and method of making same



MaCh 15, 1943 J. A. sHEA 2,313,779

PEN NIBS AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME Filed Feb. 28. 1940 l @ff l jav.1413523 7.5" w f @y BY 6). WCQWC QZ-gij.

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Patented Mar. 16, 1943 y UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PEN NIB AND METHODF MAKING SAM-E John A. Shea, Jersey' City, N. J.

Application February 28, 1940, Serial No. 321,217

2 Claims.

This invention relates to the manufacture of a completed pen nib from astrip of metal, and contemplates an intermediate step therein, theobject of which is to smooth the cornersV and edges of the writingtip'and at the same time hardening the tip by compressing the cornersand edges of the same. In my co-pending applications, Serial No.211,823, Iiled June` 4, 1938, now Patent No. 2,195,430, issued April 2,1940, and Serial No. 238,552, led November 3, 1938, now Patent No.2,208,477, issued July 16, 1940, there is shown a pen and a method ofmaking pen nibs from a continuous strip of metal, and the presentinvention is directed toward the step of smoothing and hardening thecorners and edges of the writing tip.

Instead of tumbling individual pens, which is and has been the manner ofsmoothing metal pens preferably of stainless steel up to the presenttime, I have reduced this to aV precise mechanical operation by apressure of upper and lower dies on the edges and corners of the writingtip that not only smooths these edges and corners, but simultaneouslyhardens the metal by the vise like pressure applied by these` dies.

In my co-pending application, Serial No. 238,552, led November 3, 1938,there is shown a method of making pens from a continuous strip of metal,and this method of smoothing pens is one of the operations made possibleby that strip method.

It will be readily seen that by this smoothing operation, I am enabledto complete the pen in nal shape for writing, whereas heretofore thenecessary tumbling operation on the individual blanks was one of thereasonswhy it has been impossible to manufacture a pen in one continuousoperation.

The invention will be more fully described hereinafter, embodimentswillbe shown in the drawing, and the invention will be iinally pointedout in the claims.

In the accompanying drawing:

Figure 1 is a plan View of a pen tip forming a part of the nib of thepen, showing the same in iinal rounded or smoothed condition;

Figure 2 is a partial plan view of the body strip which is cut out toform the nib of the pen from tip to shoulder, the remaining part of thestrip body being unoperated upon;

Figure 3 is a plan view of the tip of the nib as it is formed by the rstcutting out operation of the cutting out dies;

Figure 4 is a transverse section taken on line 4-4 of Figure 3;

Figure 5 is a transverse section of the same blank shown in Figure 4,showingr it so-related to the rounding or smoothing dies;

Figure 6 is a transverse section of the blank after the rounding actionof the dies shown in Figure 5 has been completed;

Figure '7 is a partial transverse section showing the action of theforces upon the material forming the blank during the operation of thedies, and it is' a partial section taken on line 'I--I oi"- Figur'e 1;

Figure 8 is a simi-lar section but modiiied by the use of' dies ofdiiierent curvatures;

Figure 9 is a plan view ofa completed pen tip having wings suchas shownin Figure 1, but having between the wings a slot which separates the twowings; this plan view shows the pen tip in completed form with thecorners and edges rounded; and

Figs. 10 and 11 are partial transverse sections of a blank similar toFigure 8 but made with dies of a stilldifferent curvature, whereby acertain pointed portion results-these views resulting also form aswaging'v section of the dies.

Similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughoutthe various views.

Referring to the drawing, andr more particularly to Figure 2, the stripbody I0 is provided with a die registrationv hole II and a pierce holeI2 and a nib I3 having wings I 4 and I5 thereon. Thel strip I0 issubjected to a cutting action whereby thel V-shaped space I6 is cut outand by f" successive .operations of this die, cutting out this V, thenib portion I3 which extends from the strip I0, remains. One form of thewings I4 and I5 is shown in FigureI 3 and another form of wings Im andIu is shown as part of the nib I3a in' Figure 9, having a slot Ilbetween the wings.` When thesel wings, either of Figures 3 or 9, havebeen cut out by the die operation that removes the material I9,A themetal has relatively sharp corners and edges 20', 2I, 22 andv 23, asshown in Figure'4'.

The invention consists in subjecting this metal with such corners andedges 20, 2 I, 22 and 23 to a rounding operation so as to shape thecross section shown in Figure 4 into the cross section shown in Figure 6where the corners and edges 20a, 2 Ia, 22a and 23a are rounded. Thisrounding action takes place by subjecting the wings to the operation ofa die consisting of an upper part 25 and a lower part 26 suitablyoperated in the manner well known.

The opposite faces of each of these dies have a shall recess 21 for theupper die and a similarL shallow recess 28 for the lower die, havinglleted corners 39. When these dies 25 and 26 are pressed together, themore or less right angle corners and edges of the blank or nib I3therebetween are subjected to pressure as indicated by the arrows 32 inFigure 1, and this diagonal inward pressure causes a slight outwardpressure as shown bythe arrow 33 in Figure '1 which brings about agentle rounding action along the sides of the blank or nib I3. It willbe noted that the curved portions or fillets 30 of both of the dies 25and 2S extend slightly beyond the length of the blank or nibI3therebetween. The length of the blank is shown by the double headedarrow marked X, and the length'of the recesses is shown by the doubledheaded arrow marked Y,

lowered so as to bein Contact with the blank or nib I3. The continuedaction of the dies toward each other brings about the pressure action asshown in Figure 7. In a modified form, the pressure action upon thecorners may be increased by vchanging the curvature of the fillets 39 soas to bring about, a general rounded side as shown in Figure 8, theparts between the arrows 35 being more or lessstraght, althoughtheoretically it is slightly rounded by the pressure action indicated bythe arrow 33 in Figure '1. In other words, one pressure action result ofthe dies is shown in Figure '1. A more compact pressure actionresult isshown in Figure 8. A still more compact pressure action result is shown'in Figure 10.

The dies 25 and 26 are so shaped as to conform either to the contourshown in Figure 3, whereby a rounding action is brought about as shownin Figure 1, or the die may be shaped to conform to the general contourof the embodiment shown in Figure 9, whereby the rounding action takesplace all around the sets of each wing, and in AFigure 9 from about thepoint 31 to the point 38 of one wing 14a and from the point 39 to aboutthe point 49 of the other wing I5a.

In the embodiment shown in Figure 1, the rounding action is continuousfrom about the point 42 to about the point 43 of the form shown inFigure 1.

The pressure applied to the dies in the description just made is mainlyfor the purpose of smoothing the corners and edges, and at the same timecompressing the metal along the contours indicated, therebystrengthening and hardening the metal. The operation of the dies can becarried out with still greater pressure so as to bring about a swagingaction and result in a tightly compressed metal substantiallythroughasiavvo particularly desirous to have this Very smooth' and alsohard. f

On the other hand, such swaging action in the sense that the dies actupon the entire lateral sides up to the point where the faces of the diemeet will bring about a more pointed contour, the object of which is toprovide a finer writing nib, as shown in Figure 10 by the character 44.This swaging action thus compresses the metal throughout, and from itscontour inwardly will harden the metal and with the portion 44 willprovide a very hard surface for the writing portion of the nib.

Reference is made to co-pending applications Ser. No. 325,105, filedMar. 21, 1940, and Ser. No.

321,218, filed Feb. 28, 1940, respectively, to issue Y on the same dateherewith, and the pending application, Ser.,No.'357,926, filed Sept. 23,1940.

I have described the invention in connection with the embodiment shown,but it is clear that changes may be made therein without departing fromthe spirit of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

What is claimed is: f Y Y 1. InY the method of manufacturing nishewinged pens from a blank strip of metal having laterally extending wingsin the plane of the nib, the step which consists in subjecting thecontour corners and edges of the wings along their entire contour ofeach of the pen nibs while the wings are in the plane of the nib, to theaction of equal compression forces around theentire contour only, thebody of the metal within the contours remaining without deformation` toequally smooth, round and harden said contour only, the Vintensity ofcompression ofthe metal along the entire contour being determinative ofthe character of the writing tip of each of the pen nibs when the wingsare bent to writing positionrfor the writing of fine, medium or coarse1nes.

2. A pen nib blank laterally extended from a continuous strip of metalalong one side thereof, said pen nib blank havingv circular shaped wingportions in the plane of the nib on opposite sides of the median planethereof vadapted when bent from the plane of the nib to form a writingtip with writing surfaces along the circular surfaces of greaterdistance from said median line, the contour corners and edges of saidwing portions only being smooth, round and hard and having the sameshape throughout the contour, the metal along the entire contour of saidwing portions being compressed equally alon'gsaid contour, the body ofthe metal enclosedlby said compressed contour being undeformed, thewings being in the plane of the nib.

, 4Joling A. SHEA.

